


Pause

by choomchoom



Category: The Transformers (IDW Generation One)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-25
Updated: 2019-10-25
Packaged: 2021-01-03 02:07:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21171650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/choomchoom/pseuds/choomchoom
Summary: Fixing up Metroplex is hard and tiring, and Chromia tries to surprise Windblade with a romantic evening in an effort to get her to take a break.





	Pause

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for a zine that ended up being cancelled. Hope you enjoy!

Chromia noticed the door on a routine patrol. Standing around being useless while Nautica and Windblade chattered about wiring and pressure environments and system flushes had gotten boring after the first few days, and as soon as Windblade had posited that someone should map the areas where Metroplex’s sensors were damaged, Chromia had volunteered. It was lonely work, hard, but physical enough that the boredom, and most of the resentment at Windblade not having time for her, was gone. So Windblade was busy. Now Chromia was busy too, mapping out endless dingy theatres and courtyards and backup generators.

The door was nothing special, a grimy indent on a grimy wall. Chromia had to use some of Nautica’s hinge grease to pry it open, and wasn’t surprised when water flowed into the hallway from the other side. She sighed and prepared herself to fix yet another leak in Metroplex’s outer plating and entered the room.

The sight inside was far from what she expected. The fluid running out of the room wasn’t seawater, she realized, but solvent from a dozen fountains. Some of them were working, some were clogged. One had been destroyed almost completely in a fight at some point, but the grandeur of the room hardly suffered for it. a glass ceiling let in light from above the ocean, making the whole room glitter with refractory beams. There was solvent spilled everywhere and a filter obviously needed changing somewhere, but it was _lovely. _

As soon as she saw it, Chromia knew what she was going to do.

**

Chromia waited in the fountain room, bouncing on her heels. She’d stolen free minutes out of her schedule every day for the past week to clean up the fountain room and it seemed twice as beautiful as it had originally, with the skylights free of sediment buildup and the fountains flowing with clean, clear solvent. She looked at the angle of Hydrophena’s sun above her and fought off the urge to ping Nautica. Windblade should be here already.

Chromia had sat down and resigned herself to waiting when Nautica finally pinged her. _Got a problem, _the ping said.

Chromia was on her feet as soon as she read it, through the door and shifting into alt mode for the trip back to the shoulder before she replied. _What is it? What’s going on?_

_Windblade won’t take the bait_.

Chromia screeched to a halt and transformed back to root just so she could put her head in her hands in exasperation. _Don’t scare me like that. What did you tell her_?

_That you wanted to consult her on something, like you said. She asked if it could wait and I didn’t want to scare her so I panicked and said yes. _

_Thanks for trying, _Chromia said to Nautica. Of course Windblade was going to be difficult. That was, of course, half the fun. Chromia was already most of the way to the chamber where they were keeping Metroplex’s brain, so she walked the rest of the way there, doing her best not to pout. It wasn’t that Windblade didn’t want to spend time with her, she tried to convince herself. She was working hard and under a lot of pressure. But it still stung that it was _this _hard to pull her away for a minute.

She did her best to bury all those thoughts when she reached the makeshift processor chamber. Windblade, predictably, was turned away from her and there was nothing but a flicker of acknowledgement breaking the concentration in her field when Chromia walked in. “What did you need?” Windblade asked after a few moments of typing.

“I _want _to spend time with my conjunx,” Chromia said. In the tangle of circuit pieces she was working with, Nautica hesitated. She seemed to decide that she couldn’t leave without making the situation more awkward and grimaced as she went back to twisting wires.

Windblade met Chromia’s optics for the briefest of seconds before turning back to the terminal. “I’m sorry I haven’t had time for you, Chromia, it’s just been busy, keeping Metroplex alive.”

Chromia turned to Nautica. “Will he die if she takes a break?”

Nautica hesitated, optics darting between them. “I…feel like I don’t want to get in the middle of this, but, uh, no. The answer’s no.”

Windblade sighed and her hands finally sagged off of the keypad she’d been typing on. Chromia stepped toward her, irritation at Windblade’s obstinance melting away as she got close enough to take in how tired she looked. “Just a few hours,” Chromia said. “Please?”

Finally, Windblade nodded, giving the terminal one last long glance before she let Chromia lead her out of the room.

**

Chromia had planned to be standing in the fountain room with a bouquet of scavenged crystal flowers from a now-defunct greenhouse off to the side of the fountains, but this, she decided, was better. Windblade was practically crushing Chromia’s hand in excitement as she looked at the fountains, taking in the flowing solvent, the play of light over them through the skylights. “It’s beautiful,” she said, a soft smile on her face, and for that instant, Chromia was convinced that all of the effort and cajoling had been worth it.

Then Windblade’s smile turned to thoughtfulness. “I hadn’t considered solvent shunting systems when I was trying to rewire the cooling mechanisms to account for moving his brain. Maybe if I pull up the map of those there could be a way to cool the new processor chamber using less energy.” Her grip on Chromia’s hand started to slip.

Chromia tightened her own grip and grabbed onto Windblade’s other hand for good measure. “Do you have to do it right now?”

Windblade was already half-turned to go. “It’s _important_. His energy reserves are low and if we’re ever going to move him from this position, we need to preserve them.”

“Will it really matter if you do it now or in two hours?”

Windblade looked resentful and didn’t answer.

“Fixing up Metroplex is the most important thing you’ve done in your life, right?” Chromia asked. Windblade hadn’t let go of her hands, which was a promising sign.

Windblade crooked one side of her mouth in a sardonic smile. “Is that a trick question?”

Fair. Chromia rolled her eyes. “No. You get to save a Titan’s life. You, personally, without any other Cityspeakers around. It’s madness. No one’s ever done anything like it. And I have complete faith that you’re up to it.”

Windblade’s half-smile had turned real and soft. “Your point, then?”

“You can still take time for yourself. Time to enjoy life. Time to be _you_, instead of just your job. You’re important, too.”

Windblade released Chromia’s hands, and Chromia’s fuel pump plummeted before she realized that Windblade was turning towards the fountains. “Race you to the big one,” she said, already transforming and leaping into the air.

“Not fair!” Chromia cried, transforming after her and taking off across the expansive room. Windblade won, naturally, emerging laughing from alt mode as Chromia approached her, and Chromia pretended it was an accident as she dragged Windblade into the fountain with her momentum.

**

An hour later, Windblade was resting her helm on Chromia’s chest in the center of one of the fountains. There was solvent all over the floor from water fights and running between the fixtures, and Chromia felt warm and relaxed. The colors of sunset were starting to permeate the room when Chromia remembered she’d planned a second part of the date.

“Come on,” she said, gently nudging Windblade off of her.

Windblade was like dead weight. “We have to _move_? I thought this was supposed to be relaxing.”

“It’s good. I promise.”

Windblade let Chromia pull her to her feet and held onto her arm as Chromia led her to the staircase on the side of the room. Windblade had been clingier than usual all evening, and Chromia reveled in the hint that maybe, with how busy things had been, Windblade had missed her too.

Windblade gasped when she reached the top of the stairs and dragged Chromia the rest of the way to the platform she’d set up. There were meshes to dry off with and more to lay on, and Chromia had set out the last of the energon treats she’d brought from Caminus, arranged on a pitifully small platter. “It’s amazing!” Windblade said, taking one of the meshes and wrapping it around Chromia’s shoulders for her. She looked up at the skylight, not far above their helms from this height. “Wow.”

The colors of sunset were already starting to filter through the water, streaking the room with yellow and pink. Chromia and Windblade dried off and settled, pressed close together and both in range of the plate of energon treats. Chromia felt Windblade relax against her and tense up in succession, several times before she figured out how to ask about it. “What’s on your mind?” she murmured into Windblade’s audial. The treats were long gone and the sunset was painting the room and their plating in reds and golds, now.

“It’s just…you said I was important. I don’t feel important.” Windblade was tensing up again. Chromia moved an arm to rub her shoulder. “Fixing Metroplex, get him to safety…it’s so much more than I’ve ever done, than _any _of us have ever done. How am I supposed to believe I’m important, that this, taking breaks, is important, when an entire Titan is on the line…if I fail, I know I’ll regret it forever. I know it.”

“You don’t have to believe it,” Chromia said. “You believe whatever you need to get through this, yeah, this huge responsibility. But _I _believe you’re important, and you’re not going to be able to convince me otherwise. All I ask is that you put up with me taking care of you, occasionally, until this is over.”

Windblade shifted in Chromia’s arms, bringing her helm up for a kiss and then tucking it into the side of her neck. “Love you too,” she said. She stayed tucked against Chromia’s side until the water above them was dark with Hydrophena’s night.


End file.
